In the years and months and days before, you
teach me everything I know. But the day you die, you don't say anything."

Il libro è attualmente inedito in
Italia.

Synopsis: Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

Dear Victoria,

I am supposed to write a review for The Archived, but I have a feeling that
I'll end up writing a love letter for this book. Who cares about being
objective?

I've waited so long for this book;
from the very first moment I read the summary, I felt this was the book for me.
I can't explain why; like Da would say, I trusted my gut. When the postman
delivered me the book (I hate you, international shipping), I was terrified of
reading it: what if I didn't like it? What if my expectations were too high?
What if it disappointed me? I know, I may be stupid, but that what usually happens
when I get a much anticipated book.

I took a deep breath, got a box of
cookies and hot cocoa and dived into the book. And I left my heart in the
Archive, together with some tears and many wonderful hours of my day (ooops,
night). Because I didn't like this book, I LOVED it in a way I didn't think it
was possible. I was captivated, totally charmed by the magic that those pages
hold.

Again, in a review I should talk
about the book, the plot, the characters but I fear I won't find the right
words to do it. I think I should give The
Archived to everybody to make them understand. But I'll try anyway. Mac has
just moved into a new place that used to be a hotel. She's lost her brother
almost a year before and her family is shattered. She's also a Keeper, meaning
she has to take care of the Histories that escape the Archive. Histories are
records of the living, they look like people, but when they wake up they can
become dangerous.

Mac's life is full of pain, sorrow,
lies and loneliness. That's how it is for Keepers, who have to constantly lie
about who they are and what they do. Everything is about to change, though, and
Mac will discover secrets that should never have been told and will have to
face some hard situations. The quietness of the Archive will be at risk and two
boys will make her job a bit harder.

I let myself be totally caught up in
the story; I fell in love with Mac, her complex personality, her doubts and
fears, her pain. I wanted to hug her and tell her things would be okay. I
walked with her along the Narrows, I suffered with her and helped her discover
the mysteries of the Coronado. I laughed with Wes (but I think there is so much
more about him, so, so much more) and
I tried to understand Owen. I went crazy for Roland, the Librarian, one of my
favorite characters (and I love his shoes). I cried every time Mac talked about
Da or Ben. This book was such an emotional rollercoaster.

The writing… oh, it's such a
delicate, beautiful thing. A bittersweet, sad, evocative poetry put into a
page. Wonderful. With a hidden melancholy that went straight to my heart. The
words were able to create such a perfect atmosphere that I completely forgot
where I was and I lost track of the time with Mac and Wes and the Histories. I
could almost picture the Archived, thanks to descriptions so perfectly crafted.
This world full of Keepers and Librarians is pure genius!

Victoria, after all these months in
which I faithfully followed your blog, your video, your amazing MAKING HISTORY,
I want to thank for writing this book. Maybe, even if you don't know me, you
had someone like me in your mind, because The
Archived is everything I wanted it to be and even more. It was the right
book for me at the right time and I think this is the reason why it had such a
huge impact on me. I can't wait to read more about this magical world.

And Victoria? This book really did
make history for me. *goes hugging book and buying more copies to give to the
world*

My
favourite quote:

"The day you die, you tell me I have a gift.

The day you die, you tell me I am a natural.

The day you die. you tell me I am strong enough.

The day you die, you tell me it will be okay.

None of that is true.

In the years and months and days before, you teach me everything I know. But the day you die, you don't say anything."

Too many questions, too many books and too little time. I am still trying to recover from the last book I read (yeah, it was that good) and I find it hard to pick another one. Does it ever happend to you?

What am I currently reading?

All I ever wanted (Kristan Higgins)

I needed something light, fun and, why not, a bit romantic, and I had a review copy of this book. So I decided to give it a try and spend some lovely hours.

What did I recently finish reading?

The Archived (Victoria Schwab)

GUYS, GUYS, GUYS, I loved this book. My review will be up tomorrow but... yes. THIS BOOK. *goes and hugs the book again*

What do I think I'll read next?

The Scorpio Races (Maggie Stiefvater)

Okay, so, confession time: I have a copy of this book sitting on my pile. I've had it for a YEAR. Yeah, I know, bad me, feel free to insult me. I don't know how it could happen. I need to read it.
What about you? What titles can be found in your pile or e-reader?

Synopsis: Fia was born with flawless
instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her
sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped
by strange visions of the future.

Trapped
in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate
espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their
abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways… or risking each other’s lives by
refusing to obey.

Mind Games is
the first book of a new series by the author of Paranormalcy Unfortunately, I didn't really like her previous
trilogy, but this book was presented as a psychological thriller with a touch
of paranormal and the synopsis was so great that I couldn't resist.

I probably should have resisted. It's
not that the book is that bad, it
just didn't satisfy me at all. Let me explain why.

The story focuses on two sisters,
Annie, born blind and who can get glimpses of the future, and Fia, who has
perfect instinct (is that even really a superpower? Looks like it) and has been
trained to be a spy and a killer, much against her will. They both are
guests/prisoners of an organization that is not willing to let them go free and
that can predict their every mode. When Fia refuses to kill her next target, a
young man called Adam, things start to get complicated and their lives are at
stakes.

As I said, the idea is captivating
and I fell in love with it, but the execution… well, maybe my expectations were
too high and that's why I was disappointed. The two main characters felt too plain
and the writing didn't really bring out their different voices. We just see
that one of them is constantly angry and under pressure and the other doesn't
really get her sister's emotions and reasons.

Fia, the younger, is strong and
brave, a fighter mad at the whole world and at her sister; Annie, on the other
hand, is calm and just didn't understand what the school she so badly wanted to
attend did to her sister. They would do everything to protect each other and we know they love each other
(we know…we don't really feel it),
but the two sisters cannot seem to find a common ground. All the other
characters are just superficially described, except for James, gorgeous,
dangerous and cruel James, who's attracted to Fia.

The writing was probably my main problem;
I just cannot seem to like it, no matter how hard I try. It's too fragmented,
with too many repetitions (I know, they're used to show certain things, but
they annoyed me) and overall it was a bit too simple. The characters didn't
really grow on me; Fia was probably the most interesting but the way her
thoughts are presented irritated me because of the syntax.

The narration shifts constantly
between the two sisters with TONS of flashbacks, which had me confused and
disoriented more than once. The story goes back and forth, picking so many subplots
without really developing them that I had a hard time keeping tracks. We got
the girls' powers, the creepy school run by a mysterious and creepier man,
James the I-cannot-tell-you-my-plan kind of guy, the so-called saviors and so
on. I would have preferred less things but more answered. The ending is really
surprising and I may keep reading this series.

The Soul Screamers in one of the main reasons I decided to blog in
English, too. Well, actually, it all started with a Reading Challenge (my very
first one) organized by the super awesome Rachel over at Fiktshun. She gave me
the chance to appreciate even more this series (and made me try to write review
in English) and I changed my opinion about these books, because I wasn't that
convinced at the beginning. However, I kept reading and… I had to change my
opinion. This became one of the series I love and I am both terrified and eager
to see how it all ends.

Before adding any other details
about the plot and the characters, this is how the series is composed

·My
soul to lose (#0.5)

·My
soul to take (#1)

·My
soul to save (#2)

·My
soul to keep (#3)

·Reaper
(#3.5)

·My
soul to steal (#4)

·If
I die (#5)

·Never
to sleep (#5.5)

·Before
I wake (#6)

·With all my soul (#7) last book of the series to be released
in 2013

The protagonist of this series is
Kaylee, a girl who soon discovers to be a banshee, meaning that she can sense
when someone is about to die and has the urge to scream. When the person does
die, she sings until the soul leaves the body. Too bad that her singing sounds
like wailing to human ears and many people believe that she's crazy. In addition,
nobody has ever told her that she is a banshee, so it is going to be a real
shock for her when she finally finds it out and when she discovers that the
gorgeous Nash is the male counterpart of the banshee and is interested in her. Surprises
have just begun, since Kaylee will soon meet dead people who are undead and
appear and disappear at will, will travel to a parallel world were souls go and
will see that demons exist…

Soul Screamers is a series that surprised me for its accurate descriptions, its
compelling plot, the original mythology involved and especially for the
characters, which are the driving force behind these great books.

This is just my personal and general
opinion on the series. There are NO spoilers, so you can keep reading safely!

I had mixed feelings about Kaylee in
the first three books, then I surrendered and ended up loving her. Let's be
clear, she's far from perfect, she makes tons of mistakes, at times I think I
cannot stand her, I have the urge to strangle her when she tries too hard to
please Nash, but she's one of those characters who grows a lot during the
series in a very coherent way and ends up really
acting in a more mature way. I appreciated this growth. Nash, Kay's main
love interest, is one of those characters I didn't really like.

I didn't
dislike him straight away, either, but he tends to be too perfect, too
confident and a bit too arrogant. Also, he makes Kaylee suffer, even if not on
purpose (maybe) and tries to force Kaylee into having sex and does not always
act in a good way. I'll stop here to avoid spoilers. Sarcastic, ironic, snarky
and absolutely cute is Tod, Nash's dead brother, who is a reaper, one of the
guys collection souls when people die. His dark humor, terrible timing and
horrible attitude provide many comic moments and he soon stole my heart.

Even the minor characters are perfectly
developed, each with their own personality and their unique story to tell: I
love Emma, Kaylee's bestfriend, because she's a bit crazy, but she's fun and
she's a loyal friend; hard to put up with is Sophie, Kay's cousin, and Sabine,
an interesting character you will meet later on in the series and that is
really a bit difficult to deal with (to say the least). Anyway, there are tons
of characters appearing and they are all fascinating, never failing to catch
the attention.

As far as the plot is concerned,
there is a major theme that can be found in all the books, but each one deals
with a particular problem, usually involving Kaylee's schoolmates and one or
two bad demons of the Netherworld. Each story is action-packed, intriguing,
with mysteries and discoveries and unexpected turns of the events and I can
assure you that you will end up waiting for the next book to come out with fear…
because if I can say something about Ms. Vincent is that she's not afraid to make her characters deal with very weird things…

My advice? Read it! And, if you are
like me and don't fall in love at first read (or, to be more precise, at first
book), keep going because after a certain sequel things get really… interesting.

Last week I had so much fun discoverin new blogs through this Follow Hop, hosted by the fabulous Parajunkee and Alison Can Read (I strongly suggest you visit their wonderful blogs) that I am going to do it again because it's a great way to meet new bloggers and make awesome bookish friendships!This week's question is... what is the last book that kept you up late into the night just to finish it? Wow, great and hard question. I actually stay up almost all nights to read. That's my moment, my favourite part of the day, sneaking into bed with a cup of tea, surrounded by pillows and let my imagination fall into a wonderful story. I can be seen carrying a book around everywhere, around my house or when I happen to be in town... but nights are mine. Nights are for books. This week I've been kept up late... very, very late by Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini (review soon to come, so stay tuned). It's an original and moving novel I enjoyed a lot. And tonight I've been up till... no, not going to say the hour, but let's say that The Archived by Victoria Schwab is responsible for my lack of sleep. It was THAT good. *hugs book* And what about you? Share your titles!

This post is to celebrate the Italian release day of Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter!Sorry, guys, I know the book has already been released in the US, but please try to understand my happiness every time I see one of my beloved books being translated in here. I just have to share the love!

Oh, and Cole. Yep, I totally have to share some Cole love, don't you think? Here, let me show you what I am talking about...

I have decided to alternate between two memes that I really like and today it's the turn of Waiting on Wednesday (WoW), hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Here we can gush about all thos gorgeous books we absolutely WANT but which are yet to be released. Sigh, you know the feeling, right?

My pick this week is...

Let the Sky fall by Shannon Messenger

Expected publication date: 5th March 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Summary:Seventeen-year-old
Vane Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed
his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept
through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is.

Seventeen-year-old
Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its
alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of
commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to
protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life.

When
a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their
families, Audra’s forced to help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to
claim—the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But
unlocking his heritage will also unlock the memory Audra needs him to forget.
And their greatest danger is not the warriors coming to destroy them—but the
forbidden romance that’s grown between them.

Look at that cover! Isn't it absolutely stunning? Sigh, I so want it. And the synopsis... oh, it's so original! I fell in love with it and I am insanely curious to read more about air elements and winds... What do you think?

Identikit

I'm affected by an illness which makes me read and read and read. I started loving books when I was a little child and never stopped. Thrillers, young adult, contemporary fiction, classic novels, fantasy, chick-it...BRING IT ON!